Boro make an Ash of it
NEIL WARNOCK continued the chokehold he has over Middlesbrough – but only thanks to a howler of an own goal by Ashley
Fletcher.
The Boro striker glanced home a header from a Cardiff corner in the second minute and, in a game of low-quality finishes, that proved by far the best.
Not that Warnock will care much about how the victory was delivered since the important thing for the Bluebirds boss was a ninth home win out of nine meetings against Boro – achieved with seven different clubs.
“I’ve always done well against Boro – going back to my playing days,” said Warnock, after his team made it five Championship matches unbeaten.
“You look at their squad and you think goals are going to be hard to get, but we had all the chances.
“It would have been nice to have scored more, but that’s not us. We never make it easy for ourselves.
“But it was a good performance against a good team.” Cardiff exerted plenty of pressure after taking the lead, but the nearest they came to a second was when striker Omar Bogle thundered a diving header against the top of the crossbar.
Bogle also got his feet in a tangle when he was put clear by Joe Ralls and a header from Callum Paterson also went over the bar as Boro escaped conceding a second.
But defensive defiance aside, there was little to please manager Jonathan Woodgate, who admitted that a statistic of no shots on target was telling.
Fletcher worked hard up front to try to make amends for his error, but, when Boro did create one clear secondhalf opportunity for George Saville, the midfielder was way off target.
“We didn’t create enough chances for our forwards – they were basically starved of the ball,” said Woodgate.
“You have to match Cardiff physically and I thought we did that throughout the game, but we didn’t show enough quality on the ball.”
Woodgate had sympathy for Fletcher as the former Real Madrid defender knows the agony of putting the ball into the wrong net on bigger stages.
“I have scored an own goal at the Bernabeu,” he added. “It happens. We move on and get on with it.
“Hopefully, he will score a couple of goals in our next game against Sheffield Wednesday.” CARDIFF MIDDLESBROUGH 1 ......... Shots on Target ........ 0 5 ........ Shots off Target .........6 3 ................Corners .................8 10................. Fouls .................. 12 0 ............... Offsides ................. 2 56.6 .. Passing Success % ... 57.5 267 ....... Total Passes ......... 315 45.9..... Possession % ...... 54.1 57.0 ..Territorial Adv % .. 43.0